We are Growing! Increasing Number of People Coming into the Church this Easter

by Steve Ray on April 1, 2014

Some U.S. dioceses are reporting that 2014 will be an unusually fruitful year, in terms of the number of people welcomed into the Church. By Charlotte Hays

WASHINGTON — Speaking of the prospect of becoming a Catholic at this year’s Easter vigil, Sheila Bidzinski, a 36-year-old mother of two little boys, excitedly admits, “I hope I won’t pass out, but I have told my husband he has to get behind me in case he has to catch me.”

When Bidzinski, who has been studying the Catholic faith with a group at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church in Derwood, Md., comes into the Church, she will be participating in what one commentator has dubbed “a boom.”

The Archdiocese of Washington, where Bidzinski’s parish is located, will welcome the largest number of candidates and catechumens ever recorded for the archdiocese this Easter. The archdiocese will baptize or confirm 1,311 adults, children and teenagers this Easter.

“What we have seen for the past three years is a steady, incremental increase [in the number of people coming into the Church at Easter],” said Sara Blauvelt, director for catechesis of the Archdiocese of Washington. Blauvelt said that she finds it “particularly exciting” that there has been “a significant increase in the number of catechumens.”